Gator, Bulldog losses not stopping diehard tailgaters

The economy is in bad shape and so are the Florida and Georgia football teams, but that's not enough to keep the masses away from this Saturday's game.

By Nathan CrabbeStaff writer

JACKSONVILLE -- The economy is in bad shape and so are the Florida and Georgia football teams, but that's not enough to keep the masses away from this Saturday's game."As a child, I guess Christmas is what you look forward to," said Matt Pierce, a 45-year-old Jacksonville chiropractor. "As an adult, you look forward to this weekend."Pierce was grilling chicken, sausage and vegetable kebobs Thursday afternoon at RV City, as the main parking lot outside EverBank Field is known. Motor homes started lining up outside the lot on Oct. 22, their numbers reaching more than 150 before the gates opened Wednesday to allow fans to seek prime tailgating locations.But the presence of several empty spots Thursday in the usually packed main lot suggested that something was different from previous years. Some fans conceded the Gators' three-game losing streak and Bulldogs' four losses on the season were factors. Others put the blame squarely on the economy."This is the first year that I can remember that this didn't fill up," said Mark Shallar, 54, of Mount Dora.Yet the fans who fill RV City are a special breed, habitually referring to themselves as "diehards" who are undeterred by such concerns. For years, if not decades, many of them have been making an annual pilgrimage to Jacksonville for the festivities that gave the game its nickname as the "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.""These people are diehards," said Patty Wooten, 60, who has been parking in RV City for 15 years. "It doesn't matter if they're winning or losing."For more casual fans, there were signs this year's game might attract somewhat fewer fans than previous contests. Hotel bookings in Jacksonville were down, and University of Florida student tickets took longer to sell than in previous years.At the Jacksonville Landing, a collection of bars and restaurants on the city's riverfront, managers still were preparing for one of the biggest weekends of the year."It will be absolute pandemonium this weekend," said Michael Mann, manager of Benny's Seafood and Steakhouse.Mann said he has worked at the restaurant for four years and saw a reduction in the crowd last year, as the complex took measures to improve safety. He said he still expects a big turnout this year, gesturing to cases of beer stacked to the ceiling in the front entrance of the restaurant as evidence."It will be big enough to demand all this," he said.The large and drunken crowd throughout Jacksonville has led to problems before, such as the deaths of two UF students in 2004 and 2005. The university subsequently started Sideline Student Safety Zone booths to provide first aid, access to transportation and other services. The city of Jacksonville is taking responsibility for the booths this year.Last year, lobbying by university officials led the Landing to cut the number of outdoor alcohol vendors, eliminate roving shot vendors and take other steps to improve safety. Landing spokeswoman Blakeley Ainsworth said the local fire marshal also limited the number of people in the complex.This year, she said, the complex has worked with the fire department and hired an outside security firm to ensure the problem doesn't happen again. It also has asked bars not to serve alcoholic energy drinks such as Four Loko, which has been banned from some college campuses for leading to cases of alcohol poisoning.The complex wants to ensure its businesses have a successful weekend, she said."All of our merchants look forward to it every year," she said. "It's what makes them do well for the year — this one weekend."At RV City, the weekend means the reunion of friends and family who gather for food, booze and good times. Rick Sharp, 47, of Jacksonville, is one of about 50 people in 11 motor homes who return annually to an area in the lot they've dubbed Alligator Alley."The diehards — we're here every year," he said.The lot is filled with Florida and Georgia banners, inflatable mascots and Halloween-theme decorations such as a graveyard featuring little Gators eating Bulldogs amid the tombstones. Casey Jones, 35, spent his lunch break from the Port Authority taking pictures of everything Wednesday and Thursday.He'll return this weekend with 1,000 orange-and-blue jelly shots, so many he had to use an extra refrigerator to keep them cold in the meantime. He's such a diehard he has two Gator tattoos — a gator head on one arm and a gator in a Tim Tebow No. 15 jersey on the other.Yet he seemed to be bracing for the possibility of a UF loss in conceding that the Bulldogs might find success against the Gators at some point."Even a blind dog can find a tick every now and then," he said.Contact Nathan Crabbe at 338-3176 or nathan.crabbe@gvillesun.com.